MY UNCLE CHAMBRUN.
Having done so, I returned to my uncle, and said to him,--"Uncle, the
bishop has gone away in great wrath, vowing that you shall repent of
your conduct."
"And when I would have made way for him," said my aunt, indignantly,
"he called me a bad name, and looked as if I were the very scum of
the earth."
"Ah, he does not recognize marriages among the clergy," said my uncle,
calmly. "Never mind him, my good Dorothée; he'd be glad enough to have a
wife of his own, and seeing me so much better off than he is, makes him
captious and querulous. Come and shake up my pillow, for my poor head
aches sadly. I will try to get a little sleep."
At that instant, a loud trampling of horses' feet was heard, together
with the jingling of spurs and the clanking of armor.
"What's that?" cried Aunt Dorothée, running from the bed to the window,
and pulling back the little curtain, "Ah, le beau spectacle! Look out,
Jacques!"
It was indeed a fine spectacle, as far as mere outward splendor went,
to see a troup of cavalry in blue and burnished steel, on powerful black
horses, ride proudly by, making the very earth shake under them; and
many children, attracted by the sight, ran towards them, shouting and
throwing up their caps; but when I looked at the ferocious faces of
these men, seamed with many an ugly scar--their lowering brows, their
terrible eyes, their sour aspect--I felt they might be as dreadful to
face in peace as in war. I watched them out of sight, and then placed
myself beside my uncle, who, with closed eyes and folded hands, was
endeavoring to sleep. My aunt went below to baste the poulet for his
dinner. The house was very still; nothing was to be heard but the
ticking of the clock.
All at once I heard heavy feet tramping towards the house, and a
confused medley of rough voices. The next instant, the house door was
battered as if to break it in, which, being of solid oak, was no easy
matter. The door being opened, I heard a faint cry of terror from my
aunt, and a brawling and trampling impossible to describe. I looked down
from the stair-head and counted forty-two dragoons, trampling in one
after another, till, the house being of moderate size, there was hardly
room for them to stand. Yet they continued to pour in, jostling,
pushing, and elbowing one another, each trying to shout louder than his
comrades, "Holà! holà! House! house!--Give us to eat! Give us to drink!"
with frightful oaths and curses.
"Good sirs, a moment's patience, and you shall be waited on," cried my
terrified aunt.
"To Jericho with your patience! We wait for nobody. I decide for this
poulet," said one, taking it up hot in his hands, and bawling because
they were burnt; "dress two dozen more--cook all you have in the
poultry-yard, or we will cook you."
"I claim my share of that poulet," says one.
"Why not have one apiece?" said another. "Who would make two bites of a
cherry? He has gnawn off all the best mouthfuls already. Come, be quick,
mistress housewife! Where are the cellar keys?"
"I've mislaid them, good sirs," said the poor terrified woman.
"We'll kick the door open, then. Here's a ham! here are two hams! Ha!
ha! ham is good--we will heat the copper and boil them."
"No, slice them and fry them," says another; "they take too long to
boil. Bread!--where's the bread? Where's the oven? If it were big
enough, goody, we'd put you into it."
"Ha! ha! what have I found here!--a bag of money."
"Divide! divide!" shouted two dozen voices.
"It's mine, I found it!" cried the first. Then they fell to blows,
and some of them fell sprawling to the ground, and were kicked, the bag
was snatched from the finder, and the money scattered on the floor;
then they scrambled for it, as many as could get near it, laughing and
cursing; while others ransacked drawers, cupboards, and shelves, and
others broke open the cellar door, and began to drink.
Terrified beyond expression, I went back to my uncle, and saw, to my
surprise and relief, that he had fallen into a heavy sleep, which was
a restorative he particularly needed. On looking from the window,
I say my aunt, almost incapacitated by her fears, attempting to catch
the poultry, in which the dragoons alternately helped and hindered her,
roaring with laughter when a hen flew shrieking over their heads, and
then abusing my aunt. They were quickly caught and plucked, and set,
some to roast, some to broil, according to their capricious mandates;
and then, when everything was in as fair train for their disorderly
feast as it well could be (two or three additional fires having been
kindled), one of them said, "Let us divert the time with a little good
music;" and began to beat a drum.
"Louder! louder!" cried his comrades. "Let's have a chorus of drums!"
How they came to have so many, I know not, except that they were brought
for the special purpose of tormenting; but they produced six or eight,
slung them round their necks, and began to beat them, crying,--
"Now for the tour of the house!"
"Sure my uncle must be dead!" thought I, leaning over him anxiously. But
no, his breath came and went, though inaudibly, and had he been allowed
to finish his sleep in peace it might have been for his healing.
Instead of this, I heard the dragoons come stamping upstairs, producing
a muffled roll on their drums that sounded like muttering thunder. They
went into one room after another, and speedily reached that of my uncle,
on catching sight of whom they triumphantly exclaimed, "Hah! ha! v'lâ
notre ami! Here is he whom we seek, and for whom we prepare the
reveille." And ranging themselves round his bed in a moment of time, in
spite of a warning gesture from me, it being impossible for my voice to
be heard, they simultaneously beat their drums with a clangor that might
have waked the dead. No wonder, therefore, that my poor uncle started
from his sleep bewildered, terrified, and looking as if he believed
himself in some horrid dream. In vain he moved his lips, in vain he
raised his clasped hands to one and another, as if in supplication; the
more distress he showed the more noise they made, till it seemed to me
as if my eardrums would split. In the midst of it all up came my aunt,
whose fortitude and presence of mind at that moment I can never
sufficiently admire; and with forced smiles and courteous gestures made
them to understand, in dumb show, that the first course of their meal
was served. Instantly the drums ceased; one of them seized her by the
shoulders, and hurried her down stairs before him, the others clattering
after him. I turned, and saw my uncle raise his eyes and hands to
heaven, and fall back on his pillow.
There was now a lull, while the viands were being consumed; but soon a
new uproar arose--the supply was inadequate for the demand: every morsel
of food in the house was consumed at one sitting, and yet there was not
nearly enough. The dragoons were furious: they gathered about my aunt,
pulling her hair, threatening her with their fists, threatening to boil
her in her own copper, and set fire to the house, with her sick husband
in it, if she did not procure an ample supply. With matchless patience
she looked one after another in the face, said, "Attendez, attendez,
messieurs, s'il vous plait;" and then, calling me down, bid me go forth
and beg of my neighbors as much food as I could.
When wondering much at my aunt's fortitude and self-possession, she
afterwards told me that she lifted her heart to God in earnest prayer,
and there came to her the comforting remembrance of these words.
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Alas! what a scene presented itself out of doors. The people were
running up and down in despair; a woman rushed wildly out of her house,
and seized me by the arm, crying, "They are batooning my husband!"
Another shrieked from a window, 'Help, help, they are killing my
father!' Children ran about the streets, crying, "Oh, my father!--oh,
my mother!" It seemed a heartless task to be going from one to another
begging something to eat under such piteous circumstances; and yet how
knew I that as bad or worse a tragedy might be acted at my uncle's if
I failed to supply what was wanted?
At length I returned, staggering under the weight of a huge cheese and a
bag of chestnuts. And though I was reviled for not bringing them better
cheer, yet I pacified them by smiling like my aunt, and echoing her
"Attendez, messieurs, s'il vous plait;" and started forth again on my
foraging expedition, though very doubtful of having anything to bring
back.
How long were these horrible men going to stay? How could we go on
supplying their wants at this rate? If their orders were to eat my uncle
out of house and home, and drive him and my aunt to distraction, would
it not be just as well to let them do so at once, and have done with it?
One and another to whom I applied were so full of their own griefs that
I had to listen to what they had to say before they would or could hear
a word from me in return. One had been hung up by his feet over a
chimney; another had a knife held to his throat; one had seen her little
infant nearly strangled; another had been dragged along the ground by
her hair. I could not help pitying them sincerely, but not so much as
I should have done, but for the sad plight of my uncle. When I, with a
kind of wrench, forced the talk into the subject of what was going on at
his house, they, through their great love for him, forgot for a moment
their own trials in thinking of his; and those who had anything to
contribute brought it out, and those who had nothing to spare made up
for it in pity. All this consumed so much time that when I got back it
was nearly dark, and the house was all in a blaze with lights, for the
dragoons had lighted candles all over the house; and some of them were
stupid with drink, and lying in heaps; others were rendered quarrelsome
by it, and fighting and abusing one another; but as for the drummers,
they never ceased. They were at it when I set forth, they were at it
while I was away, they were at it when I came back again, and stared at
the good things I spread out before them without once staying their
drumsticks. I was so sick of it by this time, and so unable to disguise
my disgust and anger, that I persuaded myself I might as well return
home, for that I could do no good where I was, and things could get no
worse without me. So I went up to my aunt, who was then sitting like
a stone image, without seeming able to hear or see anything, and made
signs of leave-taking. She grasped my hand in both hers, and looked up
so piteously at me, her lips moving as if with the words "do not go,"
that I felt I must stay by her, come what would. For was she not my
mother's sister-in-law? and was not my uncle my mother's brother? I made
a sign I would remain, on which she kissed my hands; and then I patted
her on the shoulder, and could not help letting fall a tear. Then she
got up, and bestirred herself for the men, hoping, no doubt, they would
intermit their drumming if she could but conciliate them. But as soon
as one relay ceased drumming another took it up; and thus, shameful to
relate, they continued the whole night without intermission, crowding
round my uncle's bed, making his room intolerably hot and close, and
pushing in and out of the room and up and down the stairs.
My uncle now lay in a kind of torpor; the expression of his face painful
to witness; his wan hands lying outside the counterpane, and now and
then slightly moving, which showed me he still lived. Towards daybreak
I was so worn out that I dropped asleep as I sat beside him with my
face on the edge of his pillow--such deep sleep that I neither heard
nor dreamed of the drumming. When I woke, with a strangely confused,
unrefreshed feeling, the daylight was faintly making its way into the
room, which had no one in it but my uncle, my aunt, and me. She seemed
to have crawled with difficulty to the foot of his bed, and there sunk
and fallen asleep I went out on the landing--candles were burning in
their sockets with a vile smell--the house was full of vile smells
and of confusion and disorder--the house-door stood ajar--one or two
dragoons lay sleeping heavily on the ground. I went up again to tell
my aunt, and found her straightening my uncle like a corpse. At the
same moment a dragoon came up behind me. He was going to recommence the
disturbance, when I pointed to the bed, and said, sternly, "See what you
have done. You may now go away satisfied with having made this lately
peaceful family completely wretched. God grant you forgiveness ere you
are laid out like those cold remains."
The dragoon looked confounded. He muttered something, turned on his
heel, said something to his companions below, and we presently saw them
run out of the house. I went and shut the door. On returning I saw my
uncle was not dead. Their thinking him so was a mercy, since it gave
him a little respite. He was too weak to be moved, but he begged me to
return home and tell what had happened to my parents: adding, as I left
him, "Do not make the affair worse than it is." I thought it would be
difficult to do that.